2:1 ¶ But I determined this with myself, that I
would not come again to you in heaviness. 2
For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the
same which is made sorry by me? 3 And I
wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of
whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the
joy of you all. 4 For out of much
affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye
should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly
unto you.
Paul begins this second letter in earnest with a tone of
reconciliation. He reinforces the love he has for these people. He has
criticized them and corrected them but now he wants to extend a hand of care
and nurture to replace the proverbial skin he has torn off in his previous
letter.
2:5 ¶ But if any have caused
grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all.
6 Sufficient to such a man is
this punishment, which was inflicted of many. 7 So that contrariwise ye ought rather
to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should
be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. 8
Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward
him. 9 For to this end also did I write,
that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.
10 To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive
also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave
I it in the person of Christ; 11
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his
devices.
Paul apparently pleads for the man whom he had pushed from the
congregation in the last letter in chapter 5.
1Corinthians 5:1 ¶ It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you,
and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one
should have his father’s wife. 2 And ye
are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed
might be taken away from among you. 3
For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged
already, as though I were present, concerning
him that hath so done this deed, 4 In
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my
spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the
destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord
Jesus. 6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a
little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7 ¶ Purge out therefore the old
leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our
passover is sacrificed for us: 8
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the
leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 ¶ I wrote unto you in an
epistle not to company with fornicators: 10
Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the
covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of
the world. 11 But now I have written
unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a
fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an
extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. 12
For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye
judge them that are within? 13 But them that
are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked
person.
There are not a multiplicity of congregations or churches to run
to in this world. They did not have the consumer Christianity where you could
just go to another church. This man was cast out into the pagan religious world
of the Graeco-Roman culture where religion was everywhere and in every
activity. He must have repented of his wickedness and begged Paul even by
letter to be allowed back into the congregation lest he be consumed in a wicked
world where gods who reflected human passions and sins demanded to be
worshipped and one simply did not have the option of ignoring the pagan worship
that dominated the culture. If you were cast out of church then you truly were
in an earthly form of outer darkness.
If they will forgive him then Paul will forgive him. This is Godly
forgiveness and restoration representative of the type of forgiveness that God
affords us. He would, though, have had to repent and turn away from his sin. It
is inconceivable that Paul would have wanted this mercy shown had the person
still been engaged in the sin.
Verse 11 is very important in the sense that one of Satan’s
greatest weapons is discouragement and another is bitterness. Rejecting the man
if he was truly repentant would be a way for Satan to work his way into the
man’s heart to crush his faith. We must be careful to not shoot our wounded, so
to speak. Discouragement that comes from finding no way back into fellowship
with the fellow believers one loves or finding no way back into the family one
has been excluded from when one is truly repentant of their sins is one tool of
Satan.
But, the key to forgiveness and restoration is repentance, turning
from and rejecting the sin that is consuming us.
2Corinthians 7:10 For godly
sorrow worketh repentance to
salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
1John 1:9 If
we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our
sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.
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